Betsson’s NGG Nordic Fine Reduced Following Appeal

NGG Nordic, Betsson’s Swedish branch, has seen its fine decreased by the Swedish Gaming Authority. The initial penalty of 19 million Swedish kronor (€1.9 million/$2.3 million) was reduced to 14 million kronor following an appeal to the Administrative Court of Linköping. The court concurred with the Gaming Authority’s interpretation of the Gambling Act but disagreed on the definition of incentives and the relationship between incentives and games. The court also calculated NGG Nordic’s revenue differently from the regulator. The Gaming Authority stated that the court considered all relevant factors when setting the penalty, and that the authority had justification to issue a warning and a fine.

During the summer of 2022, the Swedish Gaming Authority determined that NGG Nordic and Skill On Net had repeatedly broken the rules by giving incentives to players. Rules in place since the beginning of 2019 limit operators to providing just one bonus when a player signs up.

The Swedish Gaming Authority’s examination of NGG Nordic’s NordicBet website revealed that the site offered various forms of rewards, including weekly surprises, cash draws, free spins, and free games. The regulator also discovered that NGG Nordic had been organizing lottery games, which were not covered by its online gaming and online betting license.

In addition to being penalized over €1 million, both groups received warnings from the regulator.

Betsson’s response to the penalty at the time was that it believed its products followed Swedish law, but it made changes immediately after the Swedish Gaming Authority intervened and subsequently clarified the rules.

It described the regulations regarding bonuses as “unclear” and easy to interpret in different ways.

Last week, the Linköping Court rejected an appeal by Joint Lottery Solutions (a subsidiary of lottery betting giant Lottoland) against a warning and fine issued by the Swedish Gaming Authority last year.

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